Later in the evening we were gathered at my house, waiting to go out to the carnival with my grandparents. We sat there, quieter than usual, barely talking to one another, each thinking about what we had seen that day. When my grandmother came into the room she looked at us all suspiciously and asked,
“What’s going on? You all seem very quiet. Too quiet, I think,” she said, peering at me from behind her glasses.
“Just a little tired I guess, grandma,” I replied.
She opened her mouth and looked as if she was going to add more but then thought better of it and smiled.
“Too tired to go to the beach carnival with us tonight?” she said, teasingly.
We all smiled and shook our heads. We were all looking forward to a fun night where we could stop thinking about the events that happened so suddenly.
The carnival was set up in an old parking lot that during the day many fishermen would park their cars so they could go fishing in the little harbor. As we approached the carnival we could see the lights of the various rides shimmering in the hazy summer night. The smells of popcorn, fried dough and cotton candy greeted us as we stepped out of the car and walked toward the entrance. My grandfather paid for our entrance and the man who took the money gave us each a light blue wristband to wear.
“What do you kids want to do?” asked my grandpa.
I turned to the others who were gazing around the area where every sense was being tempted. When grandpa saw that there were too many things that were drawing us over he chuckled and said,
“How about you just wander around and meet us back here in an hour so we can eat together?” he asked.
“That sounds like a good idea,” I replied.
“Do you have money for the games?” my grandmother asked, taking out her wallet.
“Yeah gram, mom gave me money, thanks,” I said. The others nodded and we walked off, waving to my grandparents. We tried a few games first, Mark trying to knock down the milk bottles that were stacked up. He only managed to knock down the top bottles off. We challenged one another at a waterballoon race, where we shot water into a hole and whoever’s balloon popped first would win a prize. Anna won a small stuffed toy and we moved on to a game where we had to pound little fists that popped up as fast as we could. None of us won this, but the woman who was standing beside me was the winner.
After this we went to wait on the line for the ferriswheel. There was an argument going on in the front of the line. The man letting people into the ride was arguing with another man because he was not wearing a blue bracelet. Finally the other man stepped aside as security officers approached him. The line moved up and as we got closer to the front, I felt a jolt in my stomach. The man who was talking to security was the same man in the picture. I could only see the side of his face. In the light of the bare bulbs surrounding the ferriswheel I could see the white scar etched menancingly on his face. I turned to the others and pointed at him. They all gasped and watched him closely. We were all straining our ears above the noise of the music and people laughing, screaming and talking nearby. I could only catch the words “lost” “bracelet” and “alright, going”.
Our car had come to a halt and we were ushered over to it. We sat around looking at one another as we ascended into the night sky. We stopped suddenly as the next car let people off and more climbed in. I looked down trying to spot the man. Anna’s hand grabbed my arm as I looked over.
“Don’t do that. What if you fall out?” she asked worriedly. I nodded slightly but then I caught sight of the man again and I saw him looking up, staring up at me. I sat back, my heart beating wildly.
“He was looking at me,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Mark asked.
“I was looking over the side for him and I saw him looking up and watching me,” I said. The ride had begun and we were rotating upwards to the very top. Anna clutched at the handle bar and soon we began to descend, getting closer to the landing. We looked over as we sped past and saw him standing there, looking at all of us. His eyes scanned us quickly and his face hardened.
“He saw us!” Anna yelped. “What are we gonna do?” she asked.
“As soon as the ride is over, jump out the opposite side from where he’s from and find your grandparents,” Rachel said.
However, as we decended a second time he was no longer there.
“Where did he go?” Mark asked.
“Did anyone look at the other side of the ride?” I asked, but they all shook their heads.
As we arrived once again toward the platform we looked at the other side but spotted no one.
“Maybe he wasn’t looking at us because he recognized us,” said Anna, still clutching at the bar. “Maybe he was just glaring at whoever was riding the ride because he couldn’t get on,” she suggested. We looked at one another uneasily, unsure of what to do. The ride looped around a few more time and we still could not spot him. As it came to a stop
“It’s not the man with the scar!” I yelled over the phone to Rachel and Mark.
“What?” they asked in a chorus. I looked over at Anna who was white.
“We just solved the puzzle that Rob wrote,” I said, clutching at the telephone.
